NYC Using Trophy Cams To Nab Suspected Subway Thieves

We all know that game cameras do a great job of snapping shots of our next trophy buck. With their undetectable flashes and ever-smaller housings, the silent sentinels of our outdoor pursuits have revolutionized scouting and made gathering intel for our next hunt only a few clicks away.

Now it seems game cameras are being used for a lot more than just counting points.

According to a recent story in the New York Times, local law enforcement officers have deployed a series of five Bushnell Trophy Cams deep in the city’s subway system to nab would-be copper thieves. The cable snatchers sneak into the dark recesses of subway tunnels and cut lengths of copper that can go to scrap metal merchants for as much as $24 per pound, the paper says.

Though the thieves tend to take lines that don’t have electricity running through them, in some cases the covert cutters go too far, stopping trains in their tracks and endangering riders, the paper said.

The cops position the Bushnell cameras on poles and elevated tracks of the New York subways which snap the night vision shots of suspected thieves as they enter and leave the tunnels.

“Within three hours of the first camera being installed at one location, copper cable thieves were caught on camera and eventually arrested,” a transit authority spokesman told The Times.

Since the cameras were deployed in September, law enforcement officers have caught nine trespassers in the subway tunnels and arrested two, the paper said.

Turkey hunting is wildly popular, with millions of hunters heading to the woods each year in pursuit of this wily game bird. But the sport of turkey hunting looks nothing like it did 40 years ago, and there are several factors which have contributed to this growth.

An Oregon Senate committee will hear public testimony on a proposal by gun-control advocates to require a background check any time someone sells or gives a firearm to another person who isn't a relative.

The tournament is expected to draw competitors from 60 countries. “...we're hosting people from all over the world. Everything we do may seem strange to them, and many of their customs may seem strange to us,” officials said.

It could be a good year for gun rights and gun owners. The state Legislature is proposing to make Florida one of the few states offering tax breaks for purchasers of guns, ammunition and gun club memberships.

A Colorado lawmaker who has called for the state to add a summer month to the hunting season for black bears will instead try to persuade officials to study bear overpopulation and how to reduce conflicts with humans.

The 2015 Louisiana turkey season could provide a bumper crop for hunters looking for a free meal. Bad weather last winter meant fewer than the normal number of birds were taken, so hunters who missed a bird in 2014 should have better luck this time around.

The ATF giveth and the ATF taketh away. That’s the moral of the story of the SB-15 Pistol Stabilizing Brace which launched a revolution in the AR-style pistol market that in less than one year has collapsed into uncertainty.